The guy is sandpaper. Not his voice -- all of him. Hal Cowan is direct, abrasive and opinionated. And he's wonderfully honest, and sometimes the truth hits like a bag of bricks.

You remember Hal, don't you?

He was the sports information director at Oregon State for 27 years until his retirement in 2004. Before that Cowan worked in media services at the University of Oregon for eight years. He's officially worked 36 Civil Wars as an employee, and you should know, Cowan was lousy in the rivalry game.

When he worked for the Ducks, he couldn't beat the Beavers. When he worked for the Beavers, he couldn't beat the Ducks. Cowan's official record in the annual game: 8-27-1, which includes the 0-0 tie in 1983.

Said Cowan: "It's been a gut-wrenching exercise for me."

Maybe Cowan was a carefree man who enjoyed long walks and sunsets and had all that transformed by the angst of the rivalry game. When he was at OSU on a long losing skid in the Civil War, the Oregon media relations staff would put Cowan's record at the very top of the game notes. It's possible that years of Civil War futility transformed him into the curmudgeon who ends up so principled that he once escorted a Reser Stadium vendor out of the press box for cheering for the Beavers during the game.

"No cheering in the press box," Cowan said.

Cowan, 69, was respected, and meticulous, and fair as a sports information director. He was old-school, and he always told you what he thought, which included him scolding me once at a Las Vegas Bowl press conference over a column he disagreed with. But above all, you understood that he loved his job, and the Civil War is such a part of what he did for a living that people on both sides remember Cowan having glassy eyes during the few times his side won.

Said Trail Blazers broadcaster Mike Barrett, who worked for Cowan in the sports information department at OSU: "He's the kind of guy who screams at you, and you scream back. He fired me a couple of times, only to call me an hour later and re-hire me back."

That's Hal, see.

Ask Cowan about the Civil War and he'll talk about the competitive drive of former Ducks quarterback Dan Fouts, and watching OSU coach Dee Andros give a pre-game Civil War speech as he was frothing at the mouth. And Cowan remembers observing as coach Jerry Pettibone, 0-9 entering the 1991 game, instructed his underclassmen to practice carrying the seniors off the field.

"I thought he was nuts, and he took a lot of grief for that, but you know, it worked," Cowan said. "He planted the seed in the player's minds that winning was possible."

Cowan remembers the 1998 Civil War at Reser Stadium in which Beavers fans prematurely stormed the field, thinking the game was over only to have to be ordered back off the field after a pass interference penalty against OSU.

Said Cowan: "I called Gordon Riese (the head official working the game) the next day and told him, 'it took guts to make that call -- but it was the correct call.'"

Cowan said he ran onto the field with other Oregon State administrators and attempted to maintain order, but secretly feared what was going to happen.

"I was standing there, trying to shoo people off the field and it was getting scary," said Cowan. "Everyone remembers that game being a double overtime victory, I remember how close it came to being a riot."

He's retired now and lives in Bend with his wife. He plays golf and follows college sports. Cowan will make the drive to Eugene on Thursday for the game.

"I'm always a wreck during the game, but I'll be there.."

JohnCanzano503-294-5065; twitter.com/johncanzanobft Catch him on the radio on The Bald-Faced Truth, 3-6 p.m. weekdays on KXTG (95.5).